Milestones

This page lists major milestones in the history of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and Jodrell Bank Observatory

1945

Bernard Lovell arrives at Jodrell Bank.

1947

The 66-m transit telescope - the forerunner of the Mark 1 radio telescope - is constructed with the aim of detecting radar echoes from cosmic rays.

1949

The transit telescope is used to make the first detection of radio waves from the nearby Amdromeda galaxy. Emphasis at Jodrell Bank switches firmly away from cosmic rays and into astronomical research.

1950

Charles Husband presents Lovell with the first drawings of a proposed giant, fully steerable radio telescope.

1957

Mark 1 telescope becomes operational and is the only telescope in the Western world able to track the carrier rocket of Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite.

1960

Lord Nuffield clears the remaining debt on the Mark 1 and the observatory becomes the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories.

1962

Mark 1, as part of a radio-linked interferometer, identifies a new class of very compact radio sources which are later recognised as quasers.

1963

Mark 1 discovers that OH emissions from star-forming regions and giant stars are the first celestial masers.

1966

Mark 1 receives pictures from Luna 9, the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon.

1968

Mark 1 confirms the existence of pulsars and discovers that their radio emission is highly polarised.

1969

Mark 1 is used for the first time in a VLBI observation with the 305-m telescope at Arecibo in Puerto Rico.